Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 102-98 win over the Warriors in Brooklyn Wednesday night:

1. What a difference a week makes.

Last Thursday, the Nets were waking up in Oklahoma City and preparing to face the Western Conference leading Thunder, fresh off a blowout loss to the Spurs and in the midst of a spiral that had seen them lose six of their previous seven games, seven of their previous nine and had also lost Brook Lopez for the season during that same stretch.

Now, just one week later, the Nets are riding an NBA-best four-game winning streak, one including wins over the Thunder and Warriors, and have surged back into a playoff spot in the incredibly underwhelming Eastern Conference.

Is everything right in Brooklyn? No, not yet. This team is still just 14-21, and have to prove they can sustain this over the long-term. Then there’s also the fact that you can poke holes in each of the four wins the Nets have picked up in the last week – the Thunder (Russell Westbrook), Cavaliers (Kyrie Irving) and Hawks (Al Horford) all were missing star players, while the Warriors were playing a back-to-back at the end of a seven-game East Coast road trip. But the Nets are missing their best player (Lopez) and Deron Williams missed the games against the Hawks and Warriors, as well.

In the end, the last week at least proves this team is capable of getting things turned in the right direction. Now it just has to prove it’s capable of doing so over the long haul.

2. When Andrei Kirilenko never got off the bench in the third quarter, there was some concern on press row that the versatile forward had succumbed to another bout of back spasms, given he had been entering games midway through the third quarter.

Instead, it proved to be a calculated gamble by Nets coach Jason Kidd, who wanted to try to save Kirilenko’s limited minutes for the fourth quarter. It proved to be a gamble worth taking, as Kirilenko once again was a huge factor for the Nets down the stretch of games.

One thing to think about: in the eight games he’s finished this season (he sat out the second half and overtime in a loss in Washington on Nov. 8 after his back acted up), the Nets are now 6-2, including wins over Miami, Oklahoma City and Golden State. His impact can’t be overstated.

3. In addition to Kidd smartly saving Kirilenko for the fourth quarter, he also did a nice job of limiting his rotation to nine players in Wednesday night’s game. At times this season, Kidd has gotten carried away with getting different players minutes here and there throughout games, often playing 10 or 11 guys a game. He needs to get that number down to nine or 10, tops, and allow players to get into a rhythm and become comfortable playing together.

You can quibble with some of Kidd’s choices – playing Jason Terry for 16 minutes probably isn’t going to be a winning strategy on most nights, given how Terry is playing – but getting down to a consistent nine or 10 man rotation on most nights should benefit the Nets greatly moving forward.